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Info-Graphics Digest	Sun Dec 14 03:00:40 PST 1986

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Today's Topics:

 Wanted: on-line graphics capability
 Wanted: on-line graphics capability
 Re: X and GKS
 Graphics software benchmarks
 Ray Tracing

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 9 Dec 86 20:37:33 est
From: Elizabeth Jacobsen <munnari!ausmelb.OZ!emj@seismo.CSS.GOV>
Subject: Wanted: on-line graphics capability
Distribution: net
Keywords: troff Pyramid OSx 3B2/400 HP LaserJet

Hello Net.World,

I am looking for a way to create and print 300-dpi graphics
of a quality suitable for use with "typeset" computer user
manuals, using a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet and either our
Pyramid 90X running OSx(TM), release 3.1, which combines BSD 4.2
and System V UNIX(TM), or our AT&T 3B2/400 running System V,
release 2. We use TeleVideo 914 or 955 terminals with the
Pyramid. We can transfer files from an MS-DOS(TM) system to
the Pyramid.

(We have written a program that allows troff output from our
Pyramid to print out on the LaserJet, so text is no problem,
although a few of the characters still don't sit exactly where
I'd like them and we haven't figured out how to use the 8.5-point
landscape face on our font cartridge.)

My problem is that I want to be able to create, store, and edit
graphics, using some UNIX-compatible program similar to MacPaint or
MacDraw; combine these graphics with troff output; and
print out the result on our Hewlett-Packard LaserJet--in one
pass. It would be nice if we could preview the output as well
(just to make sure the graphics fit on the intended page).

We have pic available in the Documenter's Workbench software
for the 3B2 (and I'm intimidated by its seeming difficulty).
I am aware of AT&T's 5620 graphics terminal (aka BLIT), which
has software that allows you to "draw" pictures that can then
be translated into pic format and included (so the documentation
says) in a troff file. However, I don't know how a 3B2/400
interfaces to the LaserJet nor do I know how to make any text in
the pic file use the LaserJet font cartridge rather than printing
out in bit-mapped form. Our supplier in Australia (Olivetti)
doesn't have a LaserJet, so they can't provide a demonstration.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm a real novice in this area!
If you've used pic, I'd like comments on it. Does it ever become
easy to use? Do the graphics created by pic print out at 300 dpi
if that is the resolution of your printer? Can you specify a
lower resolution to help a graphic get through the LaserJet?

Details of experience with the 5620 graphics terminal used with
a 3B2/400 would be appreciated. Information on driving a LaserJet
with a 3B2 would be fantastic. Also, any suggestions on other
ways to create, store, and edit graphics with our present
hardware/software environment (or some not *too* expensive
additions; the U.S. price is typically 50 to 100 percent
higher in Australian dollars) will be welcomed.

Please respond via e-mail and I will summarize to the net. Thank you.
[Moderator, please remove this statement if most people cannot
uucp to Australia or reword it if e-mail isn't the correct term
to use: I'm making my first net posting and am not really
sure of my terminology.]

UNIX is a registered trademark of Bell Laboratories, Inc.
OSx is a tradename of Pyramid Technology Corporation.
MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
[Moderator, I don't have all the trademark info available;
is it required? Is it better to indicate none rather
than some?]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 9 Dec 86 20:57:07 est
From: Elizabeth Jacobsen <munnari!ausmelb.OZ!emj@seismo.CSS.GOV>
Subject: Wanted: on-line graphics capability
Keywords: troff Pyramid OSx 3B2/400 HP LaserJet

[Mr. Cromarty and Mr. Langdon, Please post to your newsgroups, if
appropriate. Also, please see query below re trademarks. Liz Jacobsen]

Hello Net.World,

I am looking for a way to create and print 300-dpi graphics
of a quality suitable for use with "typeset" computer user
manuals, using a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet and either our
Pyramid 90X running OSx(tm), release 3.1, which combines BSD 4.2
and System V UNIX(tm), or our AT&T 3B2/400 running System V,
release 2. We use TeleVideo 914 or 955 terminals with the
Pyramid. We can transfer files from an MS-DOS(tm) system to
the Pyramid.

(We have written a program that allows troff output from our
Pyramid to print out on the LaserJet, so text is no problem,
although a few of the characters still don't sit exactly where
I'd like them and we haven't figured out how to use the 8.5-point
landscape face on our font cartridge.)

My problem is that I want to be able to create, store, and edit
graphics, using some UNIX-compatible program similar to MacPaint or
MacDraw; combine these graphics with troff output; and
print out the result on our Hewlett-Packard LaserJet--in one
pass. It would be nice if we could preview the output as well
(just to make sure the graphics fit on the intended page).

We have pic available in the Documenter's Workbench software
for the 3B2 (and I'm intimidated by its seeming difficulty).
I am aware of AT&T's 5620 graphics terminal (aka BLIT), which
has software that allows you to "draw" pictures that can then
be translated into pic format and included (so the documentation
says) in a troff file. However, I don't know how a 3B2/400
interfaces to the LaserJet nor do I know how to make any text in
the pic file use the LaserJet font cartridge rather than printing
out in bit-mapped form. Our supplier in Australia (Olivetti)
doesn't have a LaserJet, so they can't provide a demonstration.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm a real novice in this area!
If you've used pic, I'd like comments on it. Does it ever become
easy to use? Do the graphics created by pic print out at 300 dpi
if that is the resolution of your printer? Can you specify a
lower resolution to help a graphic get through the LaserJet?

Details of experience with the 5620 graphics terminal used with
a 3B2/400 would be appreciated. Information on driving a LaserJet
with a 3B2 would be fantastic. Also, any suggestions on other
ways to create, store, and edit graphics with our present
hardware/software environment (or some not *too* expensive
additions; the U.S. price is typically 50 to 100 percent
higher in Australian dollars) will be welcomed.

Please respond via e-mail and I will summarize to the net. Thank you.
[Moderator, please remove this statement if most people cannot
uucp to Australia or reword it if e-mail isn't the correct term
to use: I'm making my first net posting and am not really
sure of my terminology.]

UNIX is a registered trademark of Bell Laboratories, Inc.
OSx is a tradename of Pyramid Technology Corporation.
MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
[Moderator, I don't have all the trademark info available;
is it required? Is it better to indicate none rather
than some?]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 9 Dec 86 20:53:16 EST
From: garry@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Garry Wiegand)
Subject: Re: X and GKS
Organization: Cornell Engineering && Flying Moose Graphics

[cross-posted from mod.computers.workstations]

In a recent article larry@JPL-VLSI.ARPA wrote:
>How does X relate to the ANSI and soon-to-be ISO Graphical Kernel
>Standard?  Do they serve the same or similar purposes?  If so, why
>this needless duplication?  Or is there some good reason for it?

X is a "windowing system" while GKS is a "graphics package". Technically,
the distinction is mostly a matter of emphasis - a graphics package will
as a rule go on at great lengths about geometry, renditions, and 
transformations, and only touch moderately upon text and screen windows.
A windowing system, on the other hand, will concentrate on doing text and 
updates speedily, and keeping the screen windows organized, and only touch 
upon geometry and transformations.

Graphics packages generally allow some form of "stored display list" -
but do not allow sharing of the screen - while windowing systems generally 
allow (encourage) multiprocessing on a single screen but run in "immediate
mode". Both kinds of system are can be either programmed or utility-driven.
As a rule of thumb, if you have both, you'll use standard utilities to 
drive the windowing system (one of the commonest window system utilities
is the terminal emulator) and you'll write programs to drive the graphics 
system. 

None of the above distinctions are absolute - both kinds of system have
the same purpose of displaying information to a user on a graphics screen.
They just differ in particulars between what's made easy to do and what's 
made hard/impossible.

There are numerous books in the bookstore on GKS and other graphics packages;
I'm not aware of any books on X yet, but for a related windowing system you 
might try the "Smalltalk 80" book.

Hope this helps. Software, at this level, is *not* simple. Rumors to the
contrary are unfounded :-)

garry wiegand   (garry%cadif-oak@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu)

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 13 Dec 86 00:33:27 EST
From: garry@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Garry Wiegand)
Subject: Graphics software benchmarks
Organization: Cornell Engineering && Flying Moose Graphics

Has anyone ever heard of any performance benchmarks for display-list-style 
graphics software ?  (Yes I've heard of the "gigaflop club" (or was it
"tera"?); that's a different department :-)

garry wiegand   (garry%cadif-oak@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu)

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 12 Dec 86 16:28:04 mst
From: Adam Beguelin <adamb@NYU-TUT.ARPA>
Subject: Ray Tracing


I'm intrested in implementing some ray tracing algorithms for my own
educational benefit.  I would be working on a Sun workstation or a 
Macintosh or both.  Could someone send me some specific algorithms for
doing this?  Small examples in C (or anything else) would be even 
better.  I have read most of the research papers published on the topic
but none of them give an overview of an algorithm to really do it.

Please send any responses to adamb@boulder or {nbires}!boulder!adamb.

Thanks,
Adam Beguelin
Department of Computer Science
University of Colorado Boulder
adamb@boulder



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